Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="The_Universe" data-source="post: 2892292" data-attributes="member: 8944">(continued again)Within three years, the crusaders had Celusar under siege, and kings and princelings from across Taloran had joined William's quest to free Celusar from Tuathan slavery. Despite the growing power of the crusade, the siege stretched on. In the tenth year of the siege, the last Tuathan garrison fell, and Men poured over the walls, returning to the city that had once been theirs to protect. John of Victordal, however, was not in Celusar to celebrate the end of the Posedrine Heresy's influence over the Holy City. The Grand Master, tormented by the horrors of war, had undertaken a pilgrimmage to cleanse his soul the previous year. With the best of the Swordsworn at his back, John had undertaken a pilgrimmage to the Mirrorwastes, deep within the Tuathan desert - John hoped to find the Veil Rift in the glassy wasteland.Though the Grand Master had been one of the chief architects of the Celusarian crusade, neither his order, nor the overall effort suffered in his absence. The Patriarch of the Church of the 9 once more claimed Celusar, even as the Swordsworn and the Bright Brothers ferreted out heretics from abandoned Tuathan keeps and palaces in the Gwynedwen. William and the Bright Brothers were satisfied with the gains that they had made, and were content to leave the Scanonlwen to the Tuatha. With Celusar's fall, the Karedan Shahzada had offered peace terms, which the Patriarch had accepted.Meanwhile, the cries of the Men crushed under the Heretics' heel went unheard; Man had not abandoned the Scanlonwen when the Tuatha had claimed it for their own. Though their daughters were forced into the Sultan's harems, their sons made eunuchs and sent to the Shahzada's court, the Scanlon clans continued to resist their oppressors. From Andalia in the Eastern Sea, the Scanlon sent an embassy to Celusar, pleading with William of Madocwen and the Patriarch to repudiate their treaty with the Karedan Shahzada, and help win back the lands that the gods had promised Man. The Swordsworn alone answered the Scanlon's call.Though the Swordsworn were at first the only brotherhood to join the Scanlonwen Crusade, elven treachery soon drew the rest of Man's kingdoms into the conflict. Elven men-of-war preyed upon shipping from their bases in the Scanlonwen, angering the princelings, and soon the war truly began. For 300 years, the war for the Scanlonwen raged; the Swordsworn fought in every major battle, and there shed blood. However, the war has not yet ended. Men and Elves continue to contest the Isthmus of Aurius, beyond which lies Dominius and the last stronghodl of the Tuatha in the Scanlonwen. Yet, for all their noble service, the Swordsworn are no longer welcome on the battlefields of the Scanlonwen. Their halls stand empty, abandoned; the Priests of Aryal have been driven from the very lands they helped win by the ungrateful Scanlon lords. In the 250th year of the Reconquest of the Scanlonwen, the Scanlon princes created rumors that the Swordsworn, the defenders of the faith, were heretics themselves! Tired of sharing their lands with the holy warriors who had been the first to support them, the Scanlon accused the Swordsworn of unspeakable crimes, of dark sorcery, demon worship, and worse! Despite the baseless nature of these accusations, they caught the ear of the Patriarch, who stood by while the Scanlon Inquisition drove the Swordsworn back to Gwynedwen, to the lands that they had once won for Madocwen, and the Faith.  ***In the present, the Knights and Priests of the Swordsworn effectively rule Gwynedwen alongside the Bright Brotherhood. Although formally held in trust for the Kings and Queens of Madocwen, Gwynedwen has been effectively ruled from Celusar since the end of the Celusarian Crusade. In exchange for this beneficial arrangement, the Churches tend to support Madocwen over the other Prince's of Men. The Order is welcome in Ionwen and Crisinwen, though its presence is notably lower in these former provinces of Man's empire. It is not uncommon to see Swordsworn brothers in lawless Karanwen, attempting to impose civilization upon the wayward therein; indeed, in the human lands, it is only in the Scanlonwen where the Swordsworn are reviled; brothers sometimes travel there, but when they do, they do so in disguise. Of course, the swordsworn are not welcome in the Tuathan lands, though they are ferquently found in Calinmar, a city held by Madocwen, preparing to guide pilgrims as close to the Veil Rift as the forbidding climate will allow. The Swordsworn's relationship with some of the other orders is complex, and I will not detail it here. However, if you have questions about how the followers of a particular god react to the Swordsworn, I'll be happy to fill in the details. The only other clarification that I can provide regards the individual orders of the gods, in general. The Faith, such as it is, requires believers to venerate the entire Pantheon, and honor the sacrifice of fallen Sammeal. It is generally agreed (except by a few very small sects) that Belial rules the pantheon, which his right as Sammeal's consort, and chosen successor. While the Tuathan Tethyric Heresy has some followers among men, the greatest danger to the Faith is seen in a more recent movement that has gained a number of followers in the border regions near the Iron Range or Mallochswen, as well as in the lawless Karanwen - the followers of this religion revere Asheal, the Slaver, though they often extol Asheal's noble (and entirely fictional) virtues. Few details are known about what the practitioners of this heresy actually believe; regardless, the Swordsworn stand ready to defend Civilization from their madness.</blockquote>

Verification